A Manfred's Day Off New Musical Express - April 15, 1978
Chris Thompson is a mildly manic New Zealander who lives in a flat with Chinese prints on the walls above a hairdressers in the East End of London.
In the evenings, Chris plays guitar and sings with a band called Filthy McNasty in a pub called the Bridge House, a few miles from the flat. |
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When he's not doing that, he's much in demand as a sessions singer. In prospect are two major album's: Elton John's next one and a
multi-million dollar epic adaptation of H.G.Wells' "War Of The Worlds" featuring Richard Burton. Chris also does the vocals for television ads. A lucrative business if you're versatile. Chris is currently the voice of
a singing bottle in a commercial for British Glass. As if that's not enough to keep him busy, Chris Thompson also has ventures in a couple of business ventures. One involves an eight track mobile recording studio. The other one
is to do with second-hand cars. Chris Thompson is a busy man. But there's also what he does in his remaining free time. He's the lead singer with Manfred Mann's Earth Band. This involves being on the road in Europe and America
for weeks on end, as well as vast amounts of time spent in the recording studio. Chris Thompson is a very busy man. The Bridge House pub is in the Canning Town area of London. A rambling sort of place, with and olde worlde
decor of exposed beams and plaster and lathe walls. The pub nestles under a flyover just across the main Southend road from the East India dock. When the traffic gets busy on the flyover, the bands need to play loud. But in the
view of the guvnor of the Bridge House, Mr Terry Murphy, they don't need to play too loud. Terry Murphy is an amiable retired boxer who these days is built like two heavyweights rolled into one. When he politely mentions the
excessive loudness of Filthy McNasty, Chris Thompson obliges by turning the sound down a little. "Chris Thompson is a real professional," says Terry Murphy. "He's never late on, and that's important in a pub when
you've got to think about the pints you're selling." "And he's so modest, you'd think every gig was his first, because he puts so much into it." Filthy McNasty play the Bridge House three nights a week. If you
ask Mr Murphy whether they're his star band, Mr Murphy diplomatically declines to comment. Filthy McNasty are basically what used to be called a soul band, though that category's long been succeeded by a whole welter of different
labels. Intriguingly, though, the focus of attention within the band is not Thompson, but a sensuous lady singer called Stevie Lange, also a sessioner. Ms Lange says the band is a "cross between Ike and Tina Turner and
Boston", and she's not entirely joking - though it's hard to see what Boston have got to do with it. Stevie Lange's voice is somewhere between Elkie Brooks and Janice Joplin. She performs the Joplin classic "Move
Over" and does it considerable justice. When Lange and Thompson duet on a version of The Temptations' "I Can't Get Next to You", the punters go suitably ecstatic. But what's a gut like Thompson, who plays to
packed concert halls all over the world with Mr Mann, doing singing in a pub in the East End three nights a week? Chris says: "It started out as a way of keeping my voice in shape while the EarthBand were off the road, and
it just grew from there." But, in truth, isn't it perhaps because he's disaffected with Manfred?
"Not at all. The EarthBand are doing better than ever. I just enjoy the extra work. I think you should work, and I hate being idle." Wasn't he unhappy, though, that the EarthBand had failed to consolidate the success
of their hit single 'Blinded By The Light' eighteen months ago? "Well, we've tried to consolidate it, but the singles we've put out haven't made it. Maybe the next one will..."
In the meantime, Chris Thompson's off on the road again with Manfred on their British tour, and other projects have to take second place. Filthy McNasty can take a break, and other people will have to become singing bottles in
Thompson's place. The big difficulty will arise if Elton phones up. Chris and Stevie Lange did the back-up vocals at Elton's farewell gig last year. "There's no way you can turn down a guy like Elton who you've respected for
years," says Chris. Now, Chris and Stevie are due to put the backing vocals onto Elton's new album. But Elton's become so prolific with his new writer Gary Osbourne, that they're always recording new songs instead of finishing
the one's they've started. "Well, I only do things that I enjoy, and people keep offering me things that I enjoy. If it all gets out of hand, then I'll have to slow up. But there's no sign of it so far."
Bob Edmands |
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Nobody noticed anything strange about Chris Thompson. Weekdays he was just a regular rock superstar, touring American stadia and keeping teenagers off the street..
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